Q&A: How Do I Know When It’s Time to Quit a Workout?

Posted on August 15, 2016

If you find yourself working out and being unsure when to stop, here are three signs you can look for:

The easiest way is to limit your workout time to 45 minutes including warm up and cool down. Unless someone is on anabolic drugs, stress hormones rise and anabolic hormones decline making it impossible to build muscle.

The second way is to stop once your strength has decreased more than 30% from your first set, keeping the appropriate rest times between sets. At that point the nail has been hammered into the wall, anything more will damage the wall.

The third and best way is to measure how much volume you perform each workout (sets x reps x weight) and have a plan to surpass the volume every week followed by a decrease in volume every 4th week.